Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. (1 John 4:1)

Thursday, February 10, 2011

3-Legged "Health" Care

The Agenda of Rick Warren's "Daniel Plan"

"The hope for real social transformation need not rest on circumstantial evidence. One major arena, health care, has already begun to experience wrenching change. The impending transformation of medicine is a window to the transformation of all our institutions....

"The autonomy so evident in social movements is hitting the old assumptions of medicine hard. The search for self becomes a search for health, for wholeness....

"No one has realized how vulnerable the old medical model was. Within a few short years, without a shot's being fired, the concept of holistic health has been legitimized...."

"For many Aquarian Conspirators, an involvement in health care was a major stimulus to transformation."- Marilyn Ferguson, The Aquarian Conspiracy, 1980.[1]

“But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.”(Daniel 1:8)

When Rick Warren launched his Daniel Plan prescription for health several weeks ago as a massive campaign to alter the health of evangelicals in American, many discerning saints expressed shock and dismay at his open association with New Age doctors. While this fact is upsetting, there are equally disturbing issues about Warren's Daniel Plan that cannot be ignored.

With Rick Warren at the helm, the CHURCH is now in the BUSINESS of health care REFORM. This is the 3-legged stool. It is the integration of church/state/corporate that business guru Peter Drucker (Rick Warren's mentor) proposed as the method for restructuring Society.[2] In this model the Church assumes a powerful new role as Change Agent Provocateur, a cheerleader for change and transformation in Society (as illustrated in the diagram at the top of this post*).

The Blueprint for Health Care Reform

The pivotal book that officially launched the New Age movement was Marilyn Ferguson's The Aquarian Conspiracy, published in 1980. This book was "an important New Age manifesto [that] attempt[ed] to announce and popularize what the New Agers chose to publicly display in their Movement."[3] The book set forth futuristic thinking that has become so commonplace in our culture that an entire generation has grown up believing its basic assumptions. One of the key topics in this book was Ferguson's assertion that the radical overhaul of society could be based upon health care "reform" -- a "transformation" explained in the chapter "Healing Ourselves." Ferguson wrote:

"The new paradigm of health and medicine enlarges the framework of the old, incorporating brilliant technological advances while restoring and validating intuitions about mind and relationships."(p. 247)

Ferguson's New Age "holistic" health care model included "Bodymind perspective,"(p. 247) the exploration of the role played by the brain in the body's overall health. Ferguson's expanded definition of the "mind" incorporated spiritual things from the occult world. This broadened "holistic" health model, with its "body-mind-spirit" connection(p. 248), proved to be a key entry point for new theologies, philosophies and practices. Holistic health became the the easiest vehicle with which to deceive an entire population into adopting tenets of the eastern mystical worldview.[4]

Ferguson proposed a vast array of consciousness-expanding rituals that promised "body-mind-spirit" healing -- including "meditation, biofeedback, relaxation techniques, autogenic training, running, listening to music."(p. 251) Ferguson touted research stating that "'The yogis have learned to let go of those excess levels of self-stressing neurophysiological activity and simply quiet themselves down.'"[5] She also stressed the role of new psycho-spiritual technologies in altering consciousness. But note: meditation and its many related mind-altering activities weren't an end in themselves. According to Ferguson, they were for the purpose of changing people's worldviews:

"Just as some psychotechnologies increase the fluctuation of energy through the brain, enabling new patterns or paradigm shifts to occur, bodywork alters the flow of energy through the body, freeing it of its old 'ideas' or patterns, increasing its range of movement. Structural integration, the Alexander method, Feldenkrais, Applied Kinesiology, Neurokinesthetics, bioenergetics, Reichian therapy, and hundreds of other systems initiate transformation of the body."(pp. 255-6) [emphasis added]

This New Age blueprint for health care reform altered the very meaning of the term "health." In modern American society today the word "health" now connotes the entire "body-mind-spirit" connection. Three decades after Ferguson's book came out, the evangelical world has comfortably adopted the "body-mind-spirit" worldview of the New Agers.[6] Many eastern mystical "holistic health" ideas were simply re-written into biblical terminology and passed off to evangelicals as higher forms of spirituality. Today, meditation, contemplation, drumming, etc. are becoming commonplace. This is the face of the seeker-sensitive church. By accommodating itself to the eastern worldview, the Church fools itself into thinking it is more "culturally relevant." So the next step in the seeker-sensitive journey is for the Church to become an "agent" of "cultural renewal."

Kicking the 3rd Leg into High Gear

Rick Warren has now plunged into a role as Change Agent for health care reform in America. It is significant that he chose some genuine New Age gurus to be his partners.[7] This association provides an indication about how Rick Warren defines "health." Researcher Jennifer Pekich wrote an account of her personal experience at the Saddleback Health and Fitness Seminar. Her report on Rick Warren's new Daniel Plan revealed that the real agenda is not about healthy parishioners. It is about radical community transformation. She writes:

By the time I settled into listening more intently, the second speaker, Mark Hyman, began. It didn't take too long to figure out what the basis of his message was. We "need to heal with community" (he termed this "accompaniment"), "we're here for the sake of each other," this plan "is our way out," this plan "saved me," and in fact will "change the world." Saddleback was being told they were a "test community" to show the world how to live "healthy and sustainably."

Jennifer continues her report:

I about fell off my chair when Dr. Hyman stated, "The key to the success of the "Daniel Plan" is "group living"..."individuals" will not succeed, our only hope lies in "community." And with that, it was announced that the "Saddleback community" would be an example of "sustainable living" and would set the course to "change this world"...and the crowd went wild![8]

What is this Daniel Plan? Obviously it doesn't have anything to do with the biblical Daniel. Rick Warren was well-schooled in Leadership Network's marketing model which encourages pastors to snap up a biblical-sounding term, apply it on to any new plan or program, and voila! It becomes a marketing logo! Note the emphasis on community in this description:

The Daniel Plan is designed to help people adapt a healthy lifestyle through a comprehensive 52-week journey--not just another short-lived diet. With the inspiration to know and live God’s Prescription for Health, The Daniel Plan supports you with world-class professional Doctors, small-group support, tools, resources and an online community![https://www.saddleback.com/thedanielplan/healthyhabits/ ] [emphasis added]

Being part of the community means that you go into the databank. The Daniel Plan is a massive health assessment for all evangelicals gullible enough to turn in personally identifiable health data to a Rick Warren's massive secretive databank.[9] The Daniel Plan asks users to create their own health profile online that divulges intimate medical information:

In order for us to support and guide in this journey, we need to know more about the history of your health and your current physical state. This profile will also help you track your progress, connect with others working the program, and get your questions answered. [https://www.saddleback.com/thedanielplan/getstarted.html] [emphasis added]

A broad range of health data will be collected on participants. (We guess the participants will yield their right to privacy! They will provide to Dr. Rick information that was previously confidential between them and their personal physicians.) At the Daniel Plan website, the "WEEK 1: Measure Your Way to Success!" explains:

Click "Get Started," and create your "Health Profile" where you will enter in information about your current condition. The site will save your statistics so you can compare your progress down the road. All the information is private, voluntary, and optional.

To help you get started on this journey, get your height, weight, blood pressure, measurements, and "before" pictures taken on your church campus this weekend. Then, you can add this information to your profile. We also recommend knowing your Body Mass Index (BMI), completing the Medical Symptom/Toxicity Questionnaire (MSQ), and if possible, getting a "full blood panel."

"Private" is not defined in the above disclaimer about collecting health information. Furthermore, this personal "Health Profile" data is being collected for broadly unspecified purposes. Who are Rick Warren's partners in this endeavor? With whom will he share this data? Will this Church data be passed along to the State? Turned over to Corporations? (In other words, the other two legs of the 3-legged stool)? Given Warren's close association with Bill Gates, who is heavily involved in funding health care reform around the world, one can only guess how far-and-wide the Daniel Plan data could be divulged.[11]

Health Police

Let's just pause for a moment in this report to do a reality check about this new role of the 3rd leg of the stool. First, what is a CHURCH doing in the BUSINESS of assessing HEALTH CARE? Second, what is a CHURCH doing amassing a huge databank of intimate health data on evangelicals? Third, what is a CHURCH doing at the forefront of the health care reform agenda? Fourth, what is a CHURCH doing working with obvious New Age gurus?[12]

Note how cleverly Warren has maneuvered the Church into a position of Agent Provocateur. This fits in with the Dominionist "cultural renewal" model where the Church assumes a key role in managing the transformation of Society, i.e. transforming "culture." In this case, specifically health care. By assuming this pivotal role the Church is no longer the conscience of Society. It is not functioning as salt and light to a dark world. Rather it is acting as a Change Agent working in collaboration with the State and Corporate Business to facilitate transformation. As Change Agent the Church loses its prophetic voice against injustice. It becomes a collaborator with the State. This is the new "missional" church whose agenda has changed from that of preaching the Gospel and saving lost souls, to that of working on restructuring the health care "domain" (one of the "spheres" or 7 mountains) of Society.[13]

Since "health" is so broadly defined, and since "health" is what is being assessed, hard questions need to be asked about the intended performance "outcomes." Why is Dr. Hyman running numbers? What definitions will be applied to "effective" or "successful" measures of health improvement? What about those whose health is by nature inevitably physically declining -- the elderly, the incurably infirm, those who have a debilitating degenerative disease or irreversible handicap? What about those whose prognosis can only be measured in steady decline? How will they fit in with the "success statistics" that comprise "wellness"? In Peter Drucker's utopian world only those who possess "human capital" are deemed worthy citizens, and those assessed without it have no safe place in Society.[14] Scary. . .

To put the Church's role in this 3-legged stool into perspective, consider briefly Michelle Obama's key role in maneuvering the Corporate and State legs of the stool. A recent New York Times article explained:

"After wrapping her arms around the retail giant Walmart and trying to cajole food makers into producing nutrition labels that are easier to understand, Michelle Obama, an advocate of healthy eating, has set her sights on a new target: the nation's restaurants."[15 ]

This article explains how the First Lady has been "seeking partnerships with industry" and meeting with representatives from the "National Restaurant Association... in a bid to get restaurants to adopt her goals of smaller portions and children's meals that include healthful offerings.... Obama and her team are also quietly pressing the levers of industry and government...."[16] Food police obviously have an interest in what is happening with the health police, and vice versa. This is all about controlling your diet - what you eat! While Rick Warren's Daniel Plan is busy assessing everyone's girth and monitoring their caloric intake and weight-loss results, Michelle Obama is racing to overhaul the national diet by actually changing available food choices.[17]

So while Rick Warren activates the Church leg of the stool,[18] other pressures are being brought to bear on the Corporate and State legs to bring all into conformance with global consciousness and standards. And thanks to Rick Warren's Daniel Plan, we are provided with an obvious clue that these standards will be managed and monitored by the New Age/New Spirituality model of health care reform.

So it might be questioned, should Bible believers, like Daniel of old, choose not to defile themselves by partaking in the Daniel Plan with its obvious New Age and One World overtones and control mechanisms? How much better it would be for Christians to choose to satisfy their spiritual appetite by feeding on Him who is the Bread of Life.

The Truth:

"And Jesus said unto them, 'I am the Bread of Life: he that cometh to Me shall never hunger'. . ." (John 6:35)

*"Figure 2" at the top of this post is Exhibit A, a graphic representation of what this post is concerned about. It comes from Eric Swanson, To Transform A City: Whole Church, Whole Gospel, Whole City (Zondervan, 2010). Figure 2 comes from the Foreward, p. 11, and it provides a visual chart of the "7 domains of culture," of which Healthcare is the 7th. The Church in this diagram is seen encompassing the other 6 secular "domains." The book explains, "The missional church sees itself as the people of God... already deployed across all domains of culture." This is an incredible visual of the Dominionist church model. Swanson acknowledges Bob Buford of Leadership Network on p. 13. To see Eric Swanson's new "gospel," watch the youtube video http://learnings.leadnet.org/2010/06/eric-swanson-on-the-show-this-week.html, which is also posted in the context of an article "What Is Dominionism?" posted at http://apprising.org/2011/01/26/what-is-dominionism/.

About Me

Check your daily "HERESCOPE." Herescope is an online journal revealing heresies and false teachings affecting the church today. Copyright 2005-2018 held by the author or IRG, Inc. unless otherwise noted. Herescope is a term coined by Lynn Leslie literally meaning "scoping out a heresy." Herescope began as a regular magazine column in The Christian Conscience magazine published during 1995-1998 by IRG, Inc. The Discernment Research Group is an ad hoc fellowship of Christian researchers with roots dating back to 1985.